After the Pakistani general election of May 2013, the Pakistan Muslim League became the largest political force in the country and Nawaz Sharif was newly elected as Prime Minister. In a context of political and institutional instability, Professors Jaffrelot and Oldenburg will speak about the challenge of sectarianism and the threat posed by extremist Islamic groups to Pakistan’s democracy and security.

Christophe Jaffrelot is Senior research fellow at CERI (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po (Paris), and research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the King’s India Institute (London) and Global Scholar at Princeton University. Among his publications are The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian politics, 1925 to 1990s; India’s Silent Revolution. The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India and Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability. Analysing and Fighting Caste. He has also co-edited with Laurent Gayer, Muslims in Indian cities. Trajectories of marginalization. He has recently published Le syndrome pakistanais, Paris, Fayard, 2013.

Philip Oldenburg holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and has taught political science at Columbia University since 1977; he has served there as Director and Associate Director of the South Asia Institute. His scholarly writing includes a book on municipal government in Delhi and several essays on the 1971 crisis in Pakistan, on elections in India, and grassroots government in India. Editor or co-editor of ten volumes in The Asia Society’s India Briefing series., his most recent publication is India, Pakistan, and Democracy: Solving the Puzzle of Divergent Paths .

Conferences@934 is a series of monthly conferences organized by the Consulate general of France that brings together two leading experts who share their analyses on international issues.
More information: http://www.consulfrance-newyork.org

This conference is cosponsored by Alliance Program at Columbia University.